The Aguas Calientes property is an epithermal gold-silver prospect located 25 kilometres northwest of the Village of San Antonio de Los Cobres and 130 kilometres west of the City of Salta, in the Province of Jujuy, northwestern Argentina. Access is by all-weather road and paved highway from the City of Salta.
Mansfield staked the Aguas Calientes property in April 1998 and received clear title in June 1999. The property was transferred to Pachamama in 2008 when Mansfield was restructured.
In the Fall of 2000, a former joint venture partner completed a 13-hole diamond drill program totaling 1,500 metres. Seven of these holes were successful in identifying a zone of gold-silver mineralization at the Ambrosia Zone, which is open for further expansion in three directions. This zone is delineated over a strike length of 200 metres and a dip length of 70 metres at present. The significant mineralized intervals previously reported from the Ambrosia Zone are as follows:
| Drill Hole | Interval (metres) |
Length (metres) |
Gold Grade (g/t) |
| DDH AC-1 | 32.0 - 56.0 | 24.0 | 1.12 |
| DDH AC-2 | 3.6 - 20.0 | 16.4 | 1.02 |
| DDH AC-3 | 3.6 - 19.0 | 15.4 | 1.22 |
| DDH AC-6 | 5.0 - 15.0 | 10.0 | 1.50 |
| DDH AC-12 | 0.0 - 27.0 95.0 - 105.0 |
27.0 10.0 |
0.80 0.70 |
The mineralizing system at the Aguas Calientes property appears to cover two northerly trending zones of silicified and clay altered breccias in Miocene dacitic volcanic tuffs. On the northern portion of the property, the Ambrosia Zone comprises three distinct areas of pervasive silica-clay alteration adjacent to easterly trending faults. Mineralized breccias aggregate up to 50 metres in thickness. A strike length of 1 kilometre is exposed on surface. Gold values in this zone range from 0.5 to 3.3 grams/tonne. To the south, a 1.5 to 2 kilometre train of angular, proximal boulders of silicified volcanic breccia that represent lag deposits define the North and South Boulder Zones.
Gold values generally range from 2 to 5 grams/tonne (with values to 29 grams/tonne) and silver values generally range from 40 to 100 grams/tonne (with values to 900 grams/tonne). Induced Polarization geophysics show strong resistivity/chargeability responses down dip of both the Ambrosia and North Boulder zones. Recently an additional zone named Abra Tuzgle has been found 6 kilometres east of the Ambrosia Zone. Grab samples here assay up to 14 grams/tonne gold.
Management believes the results of the last drill program are sufficiently strong to warrant follow up work. Additional gold mineralization is also present in a series of shallow holes drilled for geothermal resources extending several kilometres to the east to a second area of outcropping gold mineralization at Abra Tuzgle.
